Newbie just on day 3

On January 1st 2017 I weighed 223 pounds. I began the Weight Watchers program and lost 38 pounds to 185 pounds by August. I fell back into my old eating/drinking patterns and gained 15 pounds back to 200lbs as of February 16th. I had a complete physical at the beginning of 2018 and all my blood test were normal except my insulin had crept over the normal, minimal threshold of 100, and was 105.
Over the past several months I had noticed I have been craving sweets and junk food more than usual and also I’ve been drinking more and I am beginning to be more likeI was to get to 223lbs. I think I am beginning to be insulin resistant and I want to regain control.

Day 1: Weight 200 lbs. I had not weighed since January 4th and then I weighed 194.2. Had black coffee and water until dinner. It was difficult to totally gauge my feelings since I had severe pain from the crick in my neck. Work was stressful with people being out and things still had to get done. Mid-morning I wanted to eat, as well as lunch and mid-afternoon, but I pushed through and the feelings subsided and were tolerable. Had a slight headache, but felt I had better mental clarity and had good focus as I worked on these deliverables. The stress was manageable.

Usually during my drive home I am very sleepy and when I get home I am hungry and snack incessantly until dinner. I didn’t feel that way today after work. I was tired, but alert. When I got home I did not snack, but got a cup of tea with honey instead. I had a bout of excessive bathroom trips in the afternoon.

We planned dinner and a play this evening. We ate around 6:30, so I had made it approximately 24 hours and I wasn’t “starving”, in fact, I felt in control, but I also felt I could get what I wanted. I decided no beer, only water. I find alcohol provides a slippery slope to over indulging. I then ordered a Korean BBQ flatbread pizza. Which was sweet and spicy and I ate it all. This was probably 600 calories total and that’s all I had for the day.

Day 2: Weight 197.2 lbs. Saturday. Woke at 8:00. I slept pretty well. It seems that draw back is the watery bowel movements which disturbed my sleep. I did sleep 7.5 hours and felt good, but I may have to consider Metamucil for bulk. Had coffee with honey. It seemed I could feel the teaspoon of honey chemical reactions in my brain. Without having to go to work I was concerned about eating from boredom. But I had a few chores and a run to Home Depot that kept me a little busy till noon and then I started writing this blog. It’s almost 1pm and I am not hungry, feel mentally focused and clear headed.

We decided on an early dinner around 4:30, so that was 20 hours. We went to a nice restaurant and I had braised short ribs, mashed potato and green beans. With the bread it was still less than 1000 calories. It was very good! It’s almost 9 now, still feel good. Had a cup of sleepy time tea.

Day 3: Weight 195.3 lbs. Sunday. Had a difficult time getting to sleep, but slept well for 6.5 hours. Having morning coffee, black. Slight headache across my forehead. This not eating sure frees up your day. 8am, 2nd cup of coffee, I could eat, but it’s more fore something to do than truly hungry. My wife is leaving to attend a funeral out of town and will be gone until Wednesday. This will add a variable into the fasting equation. It’s 11am local time. I still don’t feel hungry and I like this clear headed feeling.
Due to the result of an autoimmune disease I have, I no longer have my large intestines, but I need some bulk to slow things down a bit, I took Metamucil which has 8grams of sugar, it may be a necessary evil as I fast.
With the wife gone, I took My dog for a long walk, watched Netflix and realized boredom makes think about food, so I had hot tea instead. For dinner, I was going out with my son and catch a movie. We went to Red Robin for dinner. I’m sure I had 1200 calories worth of food, but I’m stuffed and feel lethargic now. I made it 26 hours before I broke-fast.
 
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Newbie days 4-8
Day 4 Weight 193.1 lbs. Slept well 7.5 hours. The Metamucil may have helped, I took it again this morning.
I’m trying to decide if I should workout or hike...no decision yet, I am drinking green tea for “lunch” at the moment. Slight headache, I’m not sure if that is just normal for me. I just took my dog for a walk, felt like I wanted to eat and it was approaching 11am, that’s why I fixed green tea. No hunger now.

Having day off that coincided with nice weather I decided to take a hike. Went to a local land trust trail that is well marked, but I’ve never been on before. Got a little lost and ended up hiking for over 2 hours. My daily Fitbit totals were 24,000 steps, 66 floors and 10.79 miles. I weighed after the hike and had lost a pound. For dinner I had Baja fish tacos with rice and a salad. I developed quiet a headache. I may have gotten dehydrated on the hike. Took Metamucil before bed.

Day 5 Weight 193.2 lbs. Slept well for 8 hours. Seems I hit bottom of the water weight and found the “hard lard” as my mom called it. I think this is where it gets interesting to compare this weight loss method to others. It’s lunch time and I feel fine, I just noticed I don’t have that same headache at the moment. I’m a little hungry, but manageable. I’ll go sip coffee and ice water. It’s 1:00pm, as the book says, hunger comes in waves and the lunch wave past, still no headache.

After work it was a beautiful day so I worked out. It’s been awhile so I went light. I did only core work and my back stretches. Then tried a 2 mile jog. Felt pretty good the whole time. Finished in 22:43.

Afterward I went to eat BBQ and had the beef brisket, black-eyed peas, skillet corn and cornbread. I was very full and now at 9:45pm I’m still not hungry. I still didn’t get any beer. Still no headache either.

Day 6 Weight 190.3 lbs. Difficulty getting to sleep and slept fitfully. Surprised at the almost 2 lb weight loss today when I thought I was at plateau with my “hard lard”. My wife is coming back today (yay). Got my standard lunch time headache.

After lunch, things got real busy at work and stressful. This is when I would have normally would have gotten "something" sweet to get me through the afternoon. I didn't and consider it a win. My wife got home, she's sick with a cold and I suggested some good Italian comfort food. I had the Italian Trio with Chicken Parm, lasagna, some noodles with Alfredo sauce, plus bread. Not sure how many calories that was. But after I got home and ready for bed, my eyes started watering, nose started running, sneezing and a headache just like an allergy attack. It was keeping me from sleeping, so I took to Benadryl. I realized that I also had the same thing happen the night before although I didn’t write about it. I will have to monitor this in the future and see if it repeats.

Day 7 Weight 191.1.

Woke feeling fine. No headache as of yet. Allergy symptoms are gone. Busy, stressful day at work. Being this busy helps, but I still get hungry around 11, but it subsides by 1. Probably didn’t drink enough water today. For supper we had a Trader Joe’s faux Chinese chicken thing over rice with a salad. I was full, and no allergies, so far... Weighed 190.3 before supper.

In bed writing this at 8pm. Work wore me out.
Day 8 Weight 190.4. The stressful deliverables are completed but I realize not being overwhelmed has its disadvantages, you think about food. But I also noticed a pattern to my hunger. I’ve never been a hungry in the morning person, but would eat anyway because I bought into the “most important meal of the day” marketing campaign. I would usually eat lunch at 11 and be famished by dinner and snack all night. When fasting, I still get hungry at 11. I’m now thinking this is when my glucose stores are getting low because it has been about 17 hours since I’d eaten. Then for the next 2 hours I have to push through with black coffee and ice water, but by 1:00 I’m golden. It use to be I would be sluggish in the afternoon, with bouts of ADD, having difficulty staying on task. Now, afternoons are a lot more productive. I can focus and have the best mental clarity of the day between 1 and 4. The focus and clarity in the morning is also better without breakfast. I would like to exercise before dinner when I can, I hadn’t lately because I was working a couple hours extra everyday the past couple of weeks. I was amazed at my energy. I had a really good workout, I ran 2 miles in 18:26.

For dinner we were on the other side of town and went to an Asian Fusion place I like. We shared grilled brussel sprouts, hibachi shrimp, vegetables and rice, plus a sushi roll. When I got home I had some grapefruit. With weight watchers you can eat fruit and I was starting to miss it. After my meal I started to get a headache and my eyes were itchy. After the grapefruit it was another full on allergy attack. Sneezing, pounding headache, runny nose, the works. I loaded up on medication and an ice pack for my head and went to bed. Things are blooming and I’ve had allergy attacks like this before so I’m not sure it’s related to food, but will continue to monitor.

Day 8 Weight 189.9. I’m down 10.1 pounds in less than 10 days is amazing. All my clothes were getting tight and now they are lose again. On Weight Watchers I weighed 200 lbs on 4/2/17 and it took until 6/11/17 to reach 189.9. That’s about 10 weeks and what a struggle, packing lunches, buying fruit, counting points. While this is so simple, just don’t eat until dinner then have what you want. I got to tell you food tastes better and more satisfying when you haven’t eaten.
 
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Jimmy Swartz

Administrator
Staff member
Your doing great TES! Your right about not being overwhelmed having it's disadvantages, especially in the early stages of omad. I always encourage everyone to stay as busy as possible to help with the thought of food. I actually would schedule extra activities in my day just to fill gaps in time so I didn't have to sit around the house and be around food. I think it's great that you are keeping such a detailed journal of your journey. This will help you in so many ways to keep you on the right track to success!
 
I loved reading your updates! I agree as well. My meals always taste better since I've been doing Omad. I feel like I'm cheating on my diet but I'm still losing weight. That's the great part about everything!
 
Newbie days 9-14 completed 2 weeks
Day 9 Continued

3:30 pm. Another weirdly beautiful day in February. Went for a noon workout, weights, stretching and a 2-mile run in 19:39. I thought I’d never run again, but my core exercises over the past year has helped my back enough to allow for a little running. Hunger wise this may be the easiest day yet! But it may be the exercising at 11:30.

The evening was weird. We co-hosted a party from 6 to 8. I decided to wait until 7:30 to eat. Being around food but abstaining wasn’t a problem. I think I ate a lot but not sure. Overall it was the easiest day yet.

Day 10 Weight 190.0

Not the easiest day, the weather turned back in to February and broke our hearts. Slept well, my wife and I were greeters at church and had to get down there. We did our duty but things ran long, my hunger grew until there was no way to squelch it. On the way home I decided lunch was in order, something small, but food. We had left over chicken skewers, a salad and a few slices of cheese. It did the trick. I did get hungry a few hours later, but I knew it wasn't real hunger and just waited on dinner.

That evening my other son was available and he wanted to take me to dinner for belated birthday celebration. There’s a chain steak house that usually does a better job than most. I had a prime rib, baked potato, salad and roll. I shall fast again tomorrow!

Day 11 Weight 190.8

Back to work. Things were the normal level of frustration, but there were system issues that hindered productivity. It was easier today. When I got hungry around 11:30, I took a walk, which helped stem the hunger and I drank extra water. No issues. I get home around 4, the weather was decent enough for exercise. Did a round of weights, then ran a slow 2 miles in about 22 minutes.

Dinner was homemade lasagna that was very good, a little bread and some orange slices. I use to have several snacks in the evenings and now I don’t crave anything after dinner. Don’t know why.

Day 12 Weight 189.1

When my work day is unproductive, I seek the comfort of food. I didn’t, but seem to think about it more. The worst part was from about 11:30 to 12:30 so I went for a walk.

It seems when I get to exercise, it shows on scales the next morning. I wasn’t able exercise today, but I also didn’t eat as large of supper tonight. Jambalaya, blackened chard over rice with creole sauce with spinach. They also served a banana foster praline bread pudding and had a wine and beer tasting, but I didn’t partake. Overall a good day.

Day 13 Weight 187.9

Another drop, I’m amazed. Had a difficult time getting to sleep because of allergies again. Fasting hadn’t fixed that. Better day at work, busy, productive with what seemed like a shorter, less intense hunger period during the lunch time. Busy and it’s raining A LOT, like 2 to 4 inches today and tomorrow. I almost went to the gym, but was too tired.

Dinner was leftover lasagna, which is the best lasagna. With salad and Texas toast with an orange for dessert. Started my evening allergy attack again tonight, I took enough antihistamines to stop it.

People ask how long will I do this and I just don’t know. I like this at the moment, I feel more in control. I am curious how low, weight wise this OMAD approach will take me. Also how it’ll affect my allergies and my autoimmune disease eventually. I have a work trip coming up on March 19th and a beach trip the first of May. A 5k in April and then a colonoscopy in June. Somewhere in there my wife will be gone for 2 weeks to help her mom through surgery. Then a big 2 week vacation at the end of July into August. It’ll be interesting to see how I fare through all of that.

Day 14 Weight 187.9 No change.

Slept well. Went to the doctor this morning for the thumb on my right hand. It had been hurting for months, I’m at the computer a lot so it was a daily thing. Using a mouse was painful. It had gotten so bad I moved the mouse to my left hand and reversed the buttons months ago. I went to the doctor in mid-January, had a nerve test mid-February and today I got the results. No carpal tunnel, just plan old arthritis so he gave me a splint. The funny thing is I think it’s better since I started fasting, of course that could ketones talking or just a placebo affect. But, I do have a small patch of eczema on my right hand that has diminished greatly.

I got to work around 10, felt fine, started on emails and the next thing I knew it was 1:45! No mid-day hunger struggle. I was fine all day. My wife was out, so I met an old friend for dinner and had a Mexican. I had a burrito, chips, salsa and it was awesome. A good day!
 
Week 3 – 184.8, down 2.7 for the week and 15.2 pounds total with this way of eating. The past week have been like the directions on the back a a shampoo bottle, rinse and repeat. Everyday is about the same, there’s still the hunger feeling at lunch, but it passes. I did an experiment and had lunch Sunday and I felt a little sluggish afterwards. Where I really noticed it was working out. My performance was similar to a fasted workout, but the “want to” wasn’t there as if I had been in a fasted state. Also, dinner was “meh”, while after fasting dinner is “YEAH!”. Also my wife noticed I had bad breath and I had been having a metallic taste and I released it was ketosis, I was never so thrilled to have bad breath!

For me it took 2 weeks to really get use to OMAD and it wasn’t because I have super willpower, in fact changing my chemistry by emptying my glucose stores reset my appetite and made it easier. Plus, the results showed quickly and I feel noticeably better by eating one meal a day. Everyone is different, but this works for me.
 
Week 3 – 184.8, down 2.7 for the week and 15.2 pounds total with this way of eating. The past week have been like the directions on the back a a shampoo bottle, rinse and repeat. Everyday is about the same, there’s still the hunger feeling at lunch, but it passes. I did an experiment and had lunch Sunday and I felt a little sluggish afterwards. Where I really noticed it was working out. My performance was similar to a fasted workout, but the “want to” wasn’t there as if I had been in a fasted state. Also, dinner was “meh”, while after fasting dinner is “YEAH!”. Also my wife noticed I had bad breath and I had been having a metallic taste and I released it was ketosis, I was never so thrilled to have bad breath!

For me it took 2 weeks to really get use to OMAD and it wasn’t because I have super willpower, in fact changing my chemistry by emptying my glucose stores reset my appetite and made it easier. Plus, the results showed quickly and I feel noticeably better by eating one meal a day. Everyone is different, but this works for me.

Thanks for sharing! This is inspiring!
 
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